I entered a high-end music store in the early 1980s in Oklahoma City, just to compare what they had to my great Altec Lansing Flamenco 848a horn and large woofer speakers. These rocked and shook my walls. I was in my early 30s with a limited budget. I saw a pair of tall skinny screens in a frame with a large tubed amplifier attached. I asked what they were and was told that they were electrostatic speakers. They were Acoustat or Martin Logan, I do not remember which. He turned them on and I was blown away. I had never heard any speakers that were so realistic in the midrange and treble. Instruments and vocals were so real I could feel their presence. I had to get them. I asked the price and was told I would have to get the amplifier and the speakers and the combination would cost somewhere between $8,000 and $10,000. I was extremely disappointed because I knew I would never be able to afford them. I left the store and dreamt about those speakers for years. I eventually forgot about them.
In early 2017 I was in Best Buy with my wife and saw a section of the store that was labeled Magnolia. It was a Hi-Fi and TV store. We were thinking about getting a new TV so we went in. After a while, I entered a separate room that had a number of speakers with McIntosh and other amplifiers. They also had a pair of tall skinny screens in a frame. I know that my heartbeat got faster, my face flushed, and I froze and stared at my fantasy speakers. All the memories came back and I just stood and enjoyed the Deja Vu. I asked the attendant to connect them and they sounded as good as I remembered and/or fantasied about. The sharpness, clarity, musicality, detail, speed, dynamic range, separation, soundstage, and solid bass were marvelous. I compared them to the Bowens Wilkins 800 D2 and other high-end speakers and there was no comparison. The electrostatics were so much better in every category that was important to me. Even my wife, who has hearing aids, also noticed and enjoyed. Her hearing has gotten progressively worse in the last 20 years. She has been unable to enjoy most music in the last 10 years because the speakers she has listened to were not clear enough. These electrostats changed this. We now listen to concerts and musical shows and she enjoys what she is hearing as well as I do.
For me, nothing I have ever heard is better.